Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Cluster's Last Stand Events in Western MA and New Hampshire



The Cluster's train rolls on! You can find our Stone Brewing Co. collaboration beer at the following places; all of which are wonderful spots that you should visit again...

July 25: Cluster's Last Crawl-Seacoast, visit some of our Short Batch accounts, pay as you go and join or bail as you please. Smuttynose folks will be out and about to drink and schmooze at some of our favorite ale vendors.
              5pm The Black Birch
              6:30pm The Portsmouth Brewery
              8pm the Press Room at 8pm. 

July 31: Cluster's Last Crawl- Portland, ME; Just like the one in Portsmouth, we'll stop in some of Short Batch accounts for a night of old school, hoppy goodness.
              5pm The Great Lost Bear 
              6:30pm Novare Res 
              8:00pm LFK 
              9:30pm Nosh Kitchen Bar

Aug 1: Julio's Liquors, Westborough, MA; 4pm-6pm, Smutty/ Stone Tasting and Cluster's bottle Release
Aug 1: Dive Bar, Worcester, MA; 8pm-11pm, Smutty/ Stone Collaboration night at the Dive (3 beers each on tap plus Cluster's)
Aug 7: Provisions, Northampton, MA; 4pm-6pm, Smutty/ Stone Tasting and Bottle Release
Aug 7: Northampton Brewery, Northampton, MA;  6pm-8pm, Cluster's Last Stand Cheese Pairing
Aug 7: Sierra Grille, Northampton, MA; 8pm-10pm, Cluster's Last Stand Tapping
Aug 12: Plan B, Springfield, MA; 5pm Cluster's Last Stand Tapping

We'll have more information about events in other places coming soon.  Please stay tuned...

Monday, July 15, 2013

Cluster's Last Stand releases at Smuttynose July 19 and goes to other places too...


So last month, Greg Koch from Stone Brewing Company joined us to brew 30 barrels of Cluster's Last Stand, a beer that recreates the original, right-after-Prohibition Ballantine IPA recipe, as found in Mitch Steele's, epic book on India Pale Ales.  You can see from the ingredient list below that Cluster's Last Stand truly isn't your everyday IPA, but we just drank some during the bottling run and it's just as delicious as anything out there on the market today.

Smuttynose DoBrO David Yarrington (L) and Stone CEO and Founder Greg Koch (R) mashing in Cluster's Last Stand
                             
We are releasing our small allotment of bottles at Smuttynose on Friday, July 19 in conjunction with our brewery tours.  We'll sell them until they're gone....  $9 a bottle.  We do take reservations for tours and bottles will be available for folks that don't take the tour, starting at 5:30.  That being said you really should see this place before we shut the doors later this fall.

If you can't make it to Heritage Avenue on Friday, there are other options. Boston's take place on the 23rd at Craft Beer Cellar from 5pm-7pm where bottles will be available on a first-come, first-served basis and then on to Lord Hobo for a keg tapping.  We're curious to see how long it will take to kick.  Smuttynose's DoBrO David Yarrington will be on hand for both events with Stone's Jeff Nelson and Smutty's Joe Grotto. 

Attendees at the Southern New Hampshire Brew Fest will also be able to sample Cluster's Last Stand at one of New Hampshire's best beer fests, put on by the good folks at White Birch Brewing.  It's on July 26-27.

More events are being planned and we'll keep you updated here on our blog.

8.3% abv  62 IBU's
Malts: North American 2-Row, Flaked Maize, Munich 10L, C-60
Hops: Bittering-Cluster, Flavor- Brewers Gold and East Kent, Dry Hop- Bullion
Yeast: White Labs WLP-001 American Ale (widely rumored to be the original Ballantine strain)